Angling EAR/ONS

I sit here. Not idly, though I wish. I sit here going over my alternates in the POI pile of EAR/ONS. I am not one to like waiting. It is time to dust these alternates off just in case RAP should turn up negative or a partial hit. I have not written about them. I have posted only about another POI in terms of being a link to EAR. . . . But I have not written a syllable about the others. RAP was neck and neck with a few others. But there was more than a reinterpretation of the comfort zone pattern which thrust him to prominence.

I sit here now going over the alternates, noticing some of those intangibles which would place them as very much in the category of the unsuspected. Let us at least discuss this angle in this post. It is the angle of approach which I believe all EAR POI must have. EAR must have been the unsuspected.

Looking at EAR composites does the opposite of narrowing down the field. Some are radically different. Either more than one person (and thus innocent person) is the inspiration for these composites or– well, no there is no other either. It can only be that some of these composites are merely of other young men in the block. Each composite was inspired by some young man unknown to the block but seen before-the-fact. There is no composite of EAR taken while he was in action.

Some of these composites are radically different than the popular “Billy Mumy” composite, which RAP matches the most. But those within my POI list who match them have a few quirks which warrant curiosity. Two of them in particular. They grew up in Carmichael, but they were schooled at Cordova High. I can’t explain this other than their father was employed by the San Juan Unified School District, the area within which EAR struck. As a result, they knew areas of Rancho C, but still lived across the river in the heart of Carmichael. Their father had a quirk of buying only corner houses. He bought quite a few of them. Why? I don’t know. But it is a curiosity (and by no means evidence) that EAR largely struck corner homes or the house next door. He seemed particularly comfortable with corner houses, as if to suggest he grew up in one and was used to approaching and retreating from one. It is a thin strand, but one that entices one to look more closely into the individual.

Thus though they went to school in Rancho Cordova, they would not be suspects there. And though they lived in the Carmichael area they may not have been suspected for another reason. They would have been high school guys, but not your usual. Graduation year fluctuated, which is the polite way of saying that each got held back a grade. I don’t know why. It may have been a move in their family’s background. Each thus graduated at the age of 20. One would have just graduated and one would have been a high school senior during EAR’s first year of attacks, though one was 20 and one was 19.

Sports– yes. Both were tops at what they did. Both sports made them quite agile, and one sport required that one of them shave his legs. EAR certainly was quite adroit in getting into the window on Malaga (No 3). And supposedly he had stubble on his legs at No 7, was it?

Both were the right size (about 5′-9-10″), blondish dishwater to brown hair. Eye color unknown. I won’t show a pic. Basically these composites are good enough. Sadly, one is undated and not listed with the particular location in which this person was seen.

The wrecking angle is weaker with both than with RAP, but construction is a closer fit. Very much so.

You can see from this that in general they fit perfectly. They would also have been the unsuspected. They grew up near Stollwood Park, only a couple of blocks from Ladera Way (Victim 10), only a few blocks north of RAP, and through the subsequent homes their father owned they were very close to the Winding Way attack sites and, frankly, most every other attack site. In fact, both of them could be the inspiration for the composites presented here, but that does not make either of them EAR.

Is this EAR or simply another local youth?

Indeed there are some things which don’t fit– For one, the eldest married in 1977. He moved up to the north part of Sacramento in 1978 (corner house, of course) and then in 1981 I can put him in Fair Oaks (at a corner house again). Maintaining a residence up here is all right with EAR’s So. Cal prowling. From my analysis I can’t see anything that says EAR lived down there. But EAR struck 4 days after Alternate No. 1’s wedding. I reduced him in priority on the assumption he was on a honeymoon.

These impressions are based on being outside and looking in. We see but the veneer– young, married man who fits the composites (some of them), was schooled in Rancho C but lived in the East Area where his parents had several corner homes. Some of it fits, but some doesn’t fit . . .in impressions anyway.

The brother is more shadowy.

There is another significant impression. How did he, and soon, his brother, escape the dragnet? The sheriffs concentrated on Rancho C in the beginning and then Carmichael. I would imagine both would have been considered viable until high school was mentioned. Their ages at 20 and 19 may not have been mentioned. My impression that escaping the dragnet is significant is an after-the-fact impression. It may not have taken much to escape suspicion. Their physical likeness, though considerable to composites, would probably not have been an influence. From published material, Bevins and his task force didn’t seem to have much faith in any composite they had so far seen. When the “general composite” was issued for the first time in May 1977, it had the most damning caption, the Sheriff warning that nothing may be entirely accurate in it.

In dusting off these POIs I become more convinced that RAP should have been the one pursued first. He never married and was decidedly in a strange family circumstance. He was far outside of the dragnet, though he too grew up in Carmichael and maintained a very stealthy connection to the area. He graduated at in 1977 as well, and this is the one disturbing thing that doesn’t fit. He wasn’t a couple of years older than normal for a senior either. He was 18. There are things in EAR’s pattern which suggest he was quite tethered in his first year of attacks and then after the summer of 1977 he was free. It is only then that he expanded his crime spree. He had a VW and access to wrecking cars.

It is best to put aside impressions and just wait and see. Yet perhaps we should look at a few more POI (in general) while we wait. For another post. . . . As always, after about 6,300 POIs, it is the quality of being the unsuspected which should draw us to anyone remaining.

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Since 1990 Gian J. Quasar has investigated a broad range of mysterious subjects, from strange disappearances to serial murders, earning in that time the unique distinction of being likened to “the real life Kolchak.” However, he is much more at home with being called The Quester or Q Man. “He’s bloody eccentric, an historian with no qualifications who sticks his nose into affairs and gets results.” He is the author of several books, one of which inspired a Resolution in Congress.

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One thought on “Angling EAR/ONS”

I hope your not getting too frustrated Q. We know we probably won’t hear anything about RAP until Oct. If for some reason RAP isn’t Ear, then it will be a disappointment but it won’t diminish your efforts one bit!! Don’t put to much pressure on yourself. Your work compiling Earons crimes will be looked at and used as the best resource ever made available and never forget that.